


All these long years

by Ibenholt



Category: Babylon 5
Genre: Centauri, M/M, Narn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-25 02:59:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12026685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ibenholt/pseuds/Ibenholt
Summary: After G'Kar saves Londo from a gunshot, they're finally reunited.





	All these long years

“Citizen G’Kar.”

One of Durla’s soldiers bowed. Londo let his unimpressed look wander to G’Kar instead, who was towering over him, eyes dark and fists clenched. Londo set down his goblet,

“Excellent. Leave us.”

“Majesty, I…”

“I said: leave us.” 

The soldier bowed once more and left. 

The shot hadn't been meant for him, they boy had informed him, but for Durla. Londo hadn't been able to contain himself, but had laughed so hard that he had been forced to lean on Durla for support. The other man had been quite tight-lipped. Now, he was probably sulking somewhere in the palace. 

G’Kar measured Londo for a while until the foot-steps disappeared down the hallway, then he nearly threw himself at him.   
He pushed him against the desk, and without any effort, lifted him up on it and settled between his legs. Londo’s arms wound up around his neck as he let himself be kissed and bitten. He stroked the ridges on the back of his head while G’Kar pushed his coat aside, running his hand past his sides and raked his nails over his his back. Then he thought he felt the keeper moving, and took his mouth off him. 

“Wait… wait, stop.” 

G’Kar let go of him immediately. 

“I’m sorry,» he said, «Did I hurt you?”

“No.”

Londo pulled him into an embrace, “But you forget where we are.” 

“This room?”

“The entire palace. This is where privacy comes to die.”

He didn’t want to resist. Everything about G’Kar was making him feel joyful and ready to leave everything behind. Almost. 

“Mollari.”

He got down from the desk, still pressed against him. 

“Thank you. Thank you for saving me.”

“I’ve made a habit out of it, haven’t I?” 

Londo smiled, 

“I suppose.” 

They sank back together, Londo’s head leaned against his shoulder, 

“I’ve missed you.” 

His lips brushed against G’Kar’s neck, making him shudder. The image of them in bed together flashed before his eyes, along with the much less appealing thought of Shiv’Kala   
viewing them from the shadows.   
Reluctantly, he turned his back on him. His fingers were trembling when he adjusted his jacket,

“Whatever we do, they will know.”

“Who?”

“Dangerous people. People eager to use you against me.”

He didn’t pull away when G’Kar put his hand on his shoulder. Even if he couldn’t tell him about Shiv’Kala, or the keeper, he felt safe.

“Am I not already being used against you?”

He came closer, and Londo sighed. If Shiv’Kala or any of the monsters were to harm him, Londo didn’t know what he would do.   
He almost lost his balance when G’Kar grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him back around. They had destroyed his eye, declaring it a means of spying. They had torn his clothes and made an eyepatch for him instead. The one good eye was glittering at him, 

“You let me live, Mollari. You might as well have kissed me.”

“There would be a war if you were seriously injured. Don’t jeapordize your life just because I can’t…”

G’Kar had started kissing his hands, taking care to focus on his palms. 

“Control yourself?» He smirked, “I’m the one doing the pushing.” 

“G’Kar…”

He could probably smell it on him. Years of being alone. If the Drakh hadn’t been there, Londo doubted they would even be dressed still. Then again, if the Drakh hadn’t been   
there, G’Kar would have been offered to stay. Perhaps he would have accepted and stayed by him in all these long years. Maker, how different life could have been.   
He felt himself sink against him as G’Kar encircled his waist and started nuzzling his neck. He couldn’t relax like this, not now. But his worries were being drowned in the assurance that G’Kar finally here. His head fell back,

“Please… we’ll be watched.”

“Is that your only objection?”

“Yes…” 

“I grew up in caves, Mollari. Privacy meant a wool blanket and shutting the world out. If you want to, I’m ready.” 

He heard himself moan out a ‘yes’, and G’Kar picked him up like there was nothing to it and made his way to the bedchambers. 

 

‘Come’ 

Shiv’Kala’s voice rang out in his head. 

‘I just did’, Londo thought back. 

But he wriggled himself out of G’Kar’s arms and went into the bath where a hidden door opened for him. He went through the small, cold brick tunnel until when he finally approached a dead end. Putting his two fingers firmly against a brick at the same height as his shoulder, he was allowed entrance.   
He stepped into the small room, making sure he padded around enough to leave footprints. As Shiv’Kala entered the light, Londo thought that he would have appreciated the dramatics all the more if the drakh could have had some humor about it. But there he was, dead-eyed and terrible. 

“Copulation?” 

He said. Londo snorted at him, 

“Good morning to you, too.” 

“You keep choosing partners that won’t give you any offspring.” 

“That was not the intention.”

If he had been allowed more movement in that stone-face, perhaps he would have wrinkled his eyebrows. 

“You mate for pleasure?”

Shiv’Kala seemed surprised. 

“I can see why you would be unfamiliar with the concept.”

Horns and edges and that face that seemed to be made of granite. No, it wasn’t odd that the thought hadn’t struck him and his kind, parasites that they were. What did made his blood boil, however, was that the bastards had been infesting his world for so long, and even these things had escaped them. 

“How do you intend to ruin his life, hm? Must be fun for you… having two you can break and bend as you wish!”

Shiv’Kala didn’t take the bait, only circled the room,

“Are you happy when you mate?”

Londo could only stare for a moment, 

“What?!”

“Does the Narn make you happy? Are you happy when you mate? You are far more docile when you are happy. So tell me, are you happy when you…”

“Stop talking!”

Londo shouted. Had he been a bit younger, he might have felt his cheeks heat up, but this was merely embarrassing for Shiv’Kala.   
“I’m happy he is here. I will be happy as long as he remains and is safe and healthy.”

He made another turn around the room. It had gone from being menacing to being annoying to finally ridiculous. Londo sometimes wondered he was keeping wheels under his   
robe. 

“The Narn is not allowed to communicate with anyone outside. He is to not leave the palace under any circumstance. You won’t have to keep him in a cell, unless you yourself feel it’s called for. If he breaks any of these rules, we will kill him.”

Londo went cold. There wasn’t much he could do. The few communication devices they had left were in the hands of men who would die before letting anyone unauthorized use them. Even as emperor, he needed clearance papers and to even be put on a waiting list. The few ships that headed off the planet were going to the colonies. And G’Kar wouldn’t stand a chance. Or would he? 

“You keep saying you are our plaything. Now he is yours.”

Shiv’Kala vanished into the darkness, and Londo turned on his heel. 

G’Kar was curled up, just as he had left him. Quietly, he got back into the bed and put his back to G’Kar’s chest, only to get his arm slung over him. 

“You’re wandering…”

G’Kar muttered. Londo pressed a kiss to his knuckles and let himself drift off. 

He wasn’t sure how long he had slept when he woke, but his eyelids felt as if they were made of lead. Forcing them open for a moment, he caught a glimpse of G’Kar lying on his side and studying him.

“Stop staring.”

He was too tired to turn his head, 

“No. I need to map your face.”

“Has it changed that much?”

“In a way…”

“Am I ugly?”

“No. But you’re older.”

“I am old, simple as that.”

“Of course you are.”

He ran a hand over his cheek.

“It shows easier on you soft-skins.”

G’Kar pressed himself against him, nose boring into his neck. He ran his finger over his head ridges. They never stopped fascinating him. And he could never decide if he preferred these or the ones on his chest.   
He cracked his eyes open, blinking a few times. G’Kar’s wrinkles had deepened, and spots had darkened. The muscles that had been visible, but slender, had bulked up. Narns only got tougher with age, he had heard.

He only felt frail. Old and full of small aches and stubborn joints. But G’Kar’s fingers were running over him, tracing over the familiar marks, and the long trails of soft skin, as if he were made of fine fabric. He wished he had put more time into his beauty regimen than he had, but taking time to use fine oils and creams when the planet was falling apart hadn’t felt right.  
They could stay like this today, he thought. Tomorrow, he could introduce him to Senna and Dunseny and the handmaidens. Later, he could have him aid in terrorizing Durla and Lione and the rest of the trash.

 

“What have they decided?”

“What?

“Whoever watched us. Your ministers or… well, Them. What did they decide?”

He bit his lip. 

Right. 

He got up and went over to the little manual on his desk. Details regarding shipments that were being sent out to the colonies. 

“Mollari?”

“You’re a prisoner. You are to stay in the palace at all times. I don’t even think you’ll be allowed in the garden if they have their way.” 

“I can live with that,» he said, “Your garden is a wasteland, I don’t want to be there.”

“You’ll be a prisoner for the rest of your life, will you please be serious!”

“It won’t be the first time. I will live in my gilded cage with you for company.”

He rolled over on his back and stretched out. 

Londo came back to bed and whispered,

“There is a ship that will leave in an hour. I want you to get on it.”

“Mollari.”

“If you hide in the cargohold and wear a cloak, you should be fine. You have ship-hopped for some time now, yes?” 

“Yes, but…”

“Good.”

He picked G’Kar’s clothes up from the table and gathered them. He got out of bed and took Londo’s arm, 

“Mollari, stop.”

Londo turned to him. He couldn’t stay here! Not like this!

“We don’t have time, we…”

G’Kar pulled him into a deep kiss. When he broke it, Londo could barely open his eyes. 

“The transport. Great Maker, G’Kar…”

The playful look was gone,

“Don’t send me away.” 

“What?”

“Don’t send me away from you. I have nowhere to go.”

And suddenly Londo saw it.   
He was older. Tired. As worn as the leather coat he had discarded by the foot of the bed. 

“I’m sure Mr. Garibaldi would let me stay with his family for a time. The Sheridans would let me ‘crash on their couch’, as they call it. But I would over-stay my welcome. And I can’t go back to my home, Mollari. I will never know peace. Nearly everyone on Earth knows who I am. Minbar… well, we both know how I feel about the climate there.”

Londo didn’t want to laugh, but he couldn’t help the smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He still remembered their short stay there, where G’Kar had stolen every blanket, and laid huddled under them all, teeth chattering.

“I came here to see you. I didn’t know where I was going to go after that. This is the least likely place where I could choose to stay, but in a way, it makes the most sense.”

“You’re here. And it hasn’t truly felt like home without you.” 

“Don’t…”

“You’re like a hideous lamp or sofa. The room simply wouldn’t be the same.”

“You bastard!!”

Londo yelled, pounding away on his chest. 

“You are terrible!”

G’Kar chuckled, completely unphased by the punches. He grabbed Londo’s wrists and leaned in, rubbing their noses together, 

“Please. Can I stay with you?” 

An hour later, with their hands entwined, they watched the vessel take off and pierce the sky.


End file.
